ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Voltage Drop For Direct Burial Feeders

I'm looking for some software that will caculate voltage drops.It needs to have a version for Mac OS X.I 'm running 240 volt feeders 450' to end up with 200 amps at a residential building site.Any help for caculating voltage drops for DIRECT BURIAL cables would be appreciatedThanks in advance for any help given.Mark

I am not sure direct burial really changes things much. The normal tables compute at 75c but when I run my calculator at 30c it only changes the drop 2 volts.
450' of 3/0 cu @ 200a is 13.788v (75c)
It comes out to 11.784 at 30c.

In real life you won't have 200a, I bet a cruising current of less than 100 is more realistic. It all depends on what you want to design for and what the PoCo is giving you in the first place. My power is around 124 at the meter so I can afford a little drop.

Does Mac support good old "basic" language?
I have a program written by an IBM engineer that I use. It runs on anything that uses basic, including ROM basic on the first PC.
W/9x runs it fine in the dos box
Email me at gfretwell@aol.com I will send it to you.

I think Gerald Newtons
http://www.electrician2.com/

may have one you can use until you acquire the Mac software..it has two VD calculators, Advanced allows you to change the temp

I wanted to thank you guys for your quick responses.Togol,That website is very nice!!The advanced VD calc.is just what the Dr.ordered.Regards,Mark

There are some excel sheets out there that will do it as well, or make your own, it's not that hard. As long as you have one of the many programs that will read excel under OSX, you'll be fine.

I've been using the electrician.com for so long, I don't even know where my excel sheet is. Another good one they have for raceway sizing is at: http://www.electrician2.com/calculators/rf_calculator.html

I would recommend downloading and evaluating a copy of VOLTS from Dolphins-Software @ www.dolphins-software.com. The software can easily accommodate this calculation … and more!

The software requires the use of Microsoft DotNot Framework, which you must download and install first. I don’t believe that there are any conflicts with the use of the PC based software on a Mac.

To accommodate your inquiry with the use of the program you would simply enter the load, the cable or conductor type, conductor material type, the maximum voltage drop, the voltage parameters, ambient temperature and raceway type if applicable and the program will specify the conductors in accordance with IEEE Std 141 standards.